On starting an unoriginal project

I've been wanting to get a project of my own out there since forever. The problem is I'm terrible at getting ideas that haven't been done better elsewhere. Mostly it's just as a way to get my name on something, and as a learning experience, so there's really not much of a point on getting hung up about it, but it still haunts me whenever I sit down to write code for something like that.

The project I'm currently toying with involves making a generic configurable card game engine, but it already exists in Cockatrice, a fairly popular piece of software.

Should I just go for it? Is duplicating the effort worth it? I know the answer is probably yes for both, but I'm terrified of just doing a terrible job and being absolutely embarrassed in comparison.

That's a great resume builder, but i find as an interviewer i don't care whether you are creator or contributor. i care about your activity. so starting to contribute to an existing project may be an option.

Every project is a learning experience! what kind of experience specifically are you looking for? do you want to learn about project management? a new technology or language? maybe about how one integrates one project into external dependencies?

There's no reason they should be that terrible, I mean, you have to be able to translate pictures or whatever into embroidery machine files and put them on a usb so the machine can do the embroidery somehow....

One good way to come up with an original project is to make a game. You can make something vaguely derivative that is still very much a unique game. My game is largely based on unrelated parts of three of my favorite games, but because of how they combine, the end result is very different from all three.

I've thought of ways to make my own version of StarTwine, themed after Summer Wars. The concept was so simple in the first place and so uncommon that it could probably work out, if I was any good at 3D math.

You could also think about emerging tech: if you were to make a game or application for Hololens, for instance, you may have a larger amount of time before you're everyone. You could make your own Warhammer-esque AR tabletop game, or trading card game (like you say in the OP), or just about anything else. There are opportunities for things that are currently not easy to do on a desktop or tablet, but could be done in a new medium to great effect.

There really isn't any limit.

I may begin my Hololens development by making a Japanese Mahjong app.

Haikus are quite fun
though I do them rather wrong
enjoy them, you fools

The problem with games IMO is that you'll spend 5x more time dealing with resources than with real coding. Even more if you use an engine.

In my case, I'm using a few parts of XNA, and borrowing sprites for development. But most of my time is currently spent building a character editor, which is helping me design my architecture on the game side in some ways. We have no artist, so I'm putting that off for now, but the only 'dealing with resources' I really do currently is writing code.

Looking forward to Mahjong, where I only need images of tiles.

Haikus are quite fun
though I do them rather wrong
enjoy them, you fools

The problem is I'm terrible at getting ideas that haven't been done better elsewhere.

Because you're looking for problems people don't have.

You need to look for problems people actually have.

Once you learn how to do that, then you will start figuring out how to find problems people don't know they have.

Then you go onto problems people will never have but you can convince them they'll have soon.

So, in essence, you're not a marketer. Because it's a marketer that takes an idea from a problem people don't realize / don't have and turn it into a product they want.

At what point before computers did people think they needed a machine that took them a long time to make holes in cards, and turn it into a program they'll only use a handful of times, into a machine that people can't live without because automation makes our lives easier, but doesn't really make our lives easier.

Computers are very much workload front-loaded.

Think about it. Computers just gave our bosses reasons to expect more out of us.

solving actual problems is so last century
now we just convince people they have problems that we solve

Just assume everything I say is satirical. I've added tags to indicate otherwise.